Compared to 14 Democratic Nations, U.S. Public Media is Far Behind

As extremists in Congress take steps to kill funding for public broadcasting, a new report suggests our nation’s public media need more money to serve the public, not less. The study analyzes public media in 14 democratic countries and contrasts them with America’s system. The results: We’re lagging woefully behind.

Rodney Benson, professor at New York University and co-author of the study, set out to understand how other countries were able to create powerful public media.

Rod Benson: How is it that you can have government-funded media and yet have media that is also independent, critical, diverse? And what is it that makes that work?

He found that the strongest public media systems in the world were the best funded, and insulated from political meddling. And the United States trails in both measures.

Rod Benso...
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